Review: 'The Next Great Burger'

If the Esquire Network has a trademark original series, it's probably the competitive cooking series "Knife Fight." The series is based on a real-life after-hours event in Los Angeles, where local chefs would come together and drink while cooking up whatever happened to be left in the restaurant's refrigerators. It was all loud, goofball fun and for the first two seasons each episode was a standalone chef vs. chef cook-off. But the just-wrapped season three changed the format into a season-long competition that ended up with one chef winning it all.

I mention all of this because if you've seen that season of "Knife Fight," you're going to feel right at home watching the Esquire Network's newest series "The Next Great Burger." The six-episode season features comedian Owen Benjamin and chef JJ Johnson hosting three cooks who compete in front of a raucous live crowd to win that episode's title of the best burger. Each winner will compete at the end of the season with the winner waking away with the honor of creating "The Next Great Burger."

While I've referenced "Knife Fight" a lot on this review, it's not just because of the similarities between the two shows. It's also because - like "Knife Fight" - "The Next Great Burger" is a blast to watch. Yes, you've seen this type of show before, but it's well-produced by St. Louis-based production company Coolfire Studios. Thanks to some product integration with hometown business giant Budweiser, the first episode comes across like a big, raucous party. With some insanely tasty-looking burgers.

The first round pits the three chefs against each other as they cook their best burger. Episode one features a Caribbean-based burger, a loaf-of-bread-sized burger behemoth and something mysteriously called the "Resume Burger." Round one is judged by Benjamin and Johnson and they cut one of the chefs based on their impressions of the burgers. Round two pits the two remaining chefs against each other and the crowd votes for their favorite after a tasting. The show isn't rocket science and you won't see anything that you haven't seen before in other competitive cooking shows. But the chefs are unfamiliar, their burger choices are unusual and there's just enough trash-talking that you'll be amused without feeling annoyed.

"The Next Great Burger" is a lot of fun to watch and the fact that I wanted a burger and beer right after watching it implies that Budweiser's promotional money is probably being well spent.